Before your thoughts turn to experimentation with new sports nutrition products and carbo-loading strategies that support your training and racing efforts, let’s take a look at some predicted food and nutrition trends for 2008. In the coming months you can expect to see in a somewhat contradictory fashion both the promotion of simple unprocessed whole foods and nutrient touting functional foods, both valued for their roles in maintaining good health, as well as a few other nutrition twists.

Earth friendly and ethical eating
Environmental awareness has shot up the past decade and consumers want to know how their foods was grown and packaged, how far it travelled, and just how big a footprint the item’s production left on the earth. This season plan on shopping at your farmer’s market and purchase locally grown food. For daily hydration, skip bottled water whose plastic remains end up in a landfill and opt for a pitcher of filtered water. You can also carry water in reusable metal containers.

Local, wholesome, and fresh foods
While buying local supports the environment, buying wholesome and unprocessed supports your health. Research continues to uncover the health benefits of whole grains and fruits and vegetables. These foods provide plenty of good carbohydrates for training, as well as disease fighting nutrients. Shop for fresh produce regularly and store it properly to maximize your nutrient intake.

Going for a good gut
Your gut is actually is actually one of the most important organs that plays a role in keeping your immune system healthy. Plan to continue to hear plenty about prebiotics , or friendly bacteria that help with digestion, and probiotic bacteria, which are also essential for gut health. Look for these ingredients to be added to more foods (not just yogurt) and in supplement form. Whole grains, fruits, and vegetables also provide plenty of fiber which is essential for proper gut functioning. Look for foods and products that tout their high fiber content.

Building a strong immune system
With all the adaptive superbugs flying around town, it makes sense to adopt a lifestyle that promotes a strong immune system including smart training, good recovery, adequate sleep, and a diet full of immune boosting nutrients. Virtually all nutrients play some role in keeping our immune system strong. Besides being obvious good sources of vitamin C and Vitamin A and beta-carotene, fruits and vegetables also provide hundreds of plant compounds called phytonutrients. Some of their names are real tongue twisters like allylic sulfides, flavonoids, quercetin, leutin, and lycopene. Besides consuming plenty of fruits and vegetables, also include a variety of nutrient dense foods in your diet.

Recession resistant meals
Cheap food is part of the past as even conventional grocery store prices increase. Food companies and grocery store chains do offer some budget brands, while keeping meals simple can also stretch your food dollar. Dried bean such a kidney and black beans can really stretch your food dollar and add premium nutrients. In 2008 keep an eye out for tips on how to stretch your food dollars.

Brain and mood food
While more research is needed, we know that certain nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids can affect brain function, possibly improve memory, and maybe even reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. As more information becomes available be prepared to eat for brain health.

Portion reality check
Even the most active of us need to keep a grasp on reality when portioning foods and particularly when eating out. With the more is better consumer approach at restaurants, having a perspective on just how much protein you need (not 10 ounces) at a meal, and just the right portion of brown rice matters in healthy lifelong weight management. If you need more, pile on the vegetables.

Eating for your heart
About 80 million Americans have some form of cardiovascular disease. Ask your physician if it is time to get some blood work done, like checking your lipid profile and other parameters related to heart disease. While removing refined carbohydrates, saturated fat, and trans fat is important, adding specific foods and nutrients to your diet is also very helpful. Nutrients to focus on for a healthy heart include omega-3 fatty acids, certain B vitamins, specific types of fiber, and potassium to help control blood pressure. Good food choices include dried beans, oats, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.

More of the super nutrient vitamin D
If you hadn’t heard much about vitamin D in 2007, start paying attention! While vitamin D is known to be important for bone mineralization, it appears to play a role in preventing a variety of diseases such as certain cancers, autoimmune disease, and metabolic conditions. Deficiency or inadequate blood levels of vitamin D is fairly common, especially in the more northern parts of the United States. With food sources limited, and extensive exposure to sunshine prohibitive, a good multivitamin that contains vitamin D is regularly recommended by experts.

Superfruits
Acai, goji, pomegranate, mangosteen, and noni fruits and their juices are heavily touted for their high antioxidant content. More data is needed to confirm that these pricey liquids offer more or unique health benefits over other antioxidant laden foods, but expect to see more of these products on the market.

Healthy Kid’s nutrition
While parents habits and choices really set the stage for their kid’s nutrition, expect more products that are lower in sugar, rich in fiber, lower in harmful fats and appropriately portion controlled. In view of the growing concern with childhood overweight and obesity, expect more products designed for kid’s health.

Food Safety
New federal “country of origin” food labeling is expected to be implemented in 2008 and assist you in identifying the origin of food ingredients. With concern about tainted imports and the push to buy locally, consumers want safe foods.

Olympic Eats
Finally, with the Beijing Olympics on the calendar for 2008, expect to hear more about how top athletes use food, diet, and sports nutrition products to enhance their performance- all the legal way!

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Monique Ryan, MS, RD, LDN is a nationally recognized nutritionist with more than twenty-two years of experience and is owner of Personal Nutrition Designs, a Chicago based nutrition consulting company that provides nutritionprograms for endurance athletes across North America (www.moniqueryan.com).Monique consults with the Chicago Fire Soccer Team, and was the nutritionistfor Saturn Cycling from 1994 to 2000. She has also consulted with the Volvo-CannondaleMountain Bike Team, the Gary Fisher Mountain Bike Team, and the RollerbladeRacing Team. Monique has consulted with USA Cycling, and was a member ofthe Performance Enhancement Team for the Women’s Road Team leading to the2004 Athens Olympics. She has also provided nutrition consultation servicesto USA Triathlon for coaching clinics, athlete clinics, and for the residentathlete team and was a member of the USAT Performance Enhancement Teamfor the 2004 Athens Olympics. Monique is the author of "SportsNutrition for Endurance Athletes," 2nd edition (March 2007), from VeloPress,which provides sports specific nutrition for road cycling, mountain biking,running, triathlon, swimming, rowing, and adventure racing. She is alsoauthor of "PerformanceNutrition for Winter Sports" (PeakSports Press), "Performance Nutritionfor Team Sports" (PeakSports Press), and "Complete Guide to Sports Nutrition."Monique is a regular contributor to VeloNews, Inside Triathlon,Outside, and ACE Fitness Matters. As part of the FeedZonecolumn, Monique will answer selected questions online. Please sendyour questions to RyanWebQA@aol.com.